1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a female contact that has a socket for removably accommodating a male contact such as plug or pin-type terminal so that an electrical contact occurs therebetween, and more specifically relates to a female contact that has a flat spring held in its socket.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known technique (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 55-111082), a female contact has a socket for accommodating a male contact such as plug or pin-type terminal. The female contact includes, in its socket, a flat spring whose elastic force is exerted on a male contact accommodated in the socket, thereby keeping good electrical contact with the male contact.
According to the foregoing technique, a female contact 501 (see FIG. 13) is manufactured through a process such as bending and cutting a metal flat plate 601 (see FIG. 10). In FIGS. 10 to 12, base elements that are intended to form respective parts of the female contact 501 of FIG. 13 are each denoted by a reference number of six-hundred-something that is higher by 100 than a reference number of five-hundred-something denoting its corresponding part in FIG. 13.
The flat plate 601 shown in FIG. 10 includes, from left to right in the drawing sheet, a spring element 620, a socket element 610, a conductor crimper element 630, and an insulator crimper element 631. The spring element 620 is elongated in a horizontal direction of FIG. 10. The socket element 610 has a substantially square shape and is connected, in the middle of one edge thereof, with the spring element 620. In the middle of an opposite edge of the socket element 610, the conductor crimper element 630 is connected with the socket element 610 via a connecting portion 630a. The conductor crimper element 630 is elongated in a direction perpendicular to an elongation direction of the spring element 620. The insulator crimper element 631 is connected with the conductor crimper element 630 via a connecting portion 631a that locates opposite to the connecting portion 630a across the conductor crimper element 630. The insulator crimper element 631 is more elongated in the direction perpendicular to the elongation direction of the spring element 620 than the conductor crimper element 630 is. The spring element 620 has, in the vicinity of its free end, three pairs of projections 621, 622, and 623, which are paired in a widthwise direction of the spring element 620, respectively. The socket element 610 has an opening 610b in its center to form a tongue 610a that extends in the horizontal direction of FIG. 10.
In the following description, a direction running perpendicularly through the drawing sheet of FIG. 10 is defined as a “vertical direction”, and a face of the flat plate 601 visible in FIG. 10 is defined as a “surface”.
First, the spring element 620 is bent into such a shape as shown in FIG. 11. More specifically, the spring element 620 is bent 180 degrees towards the socket element 610 so as to establish a surface-to-surface contact between the socket element 610 and a front portion of the spring element 620 including the projections 621, 622, and 623. Then, a portion of the spring element 620 confronting the socket element 610, which means the front portion including the projections 621, 622, and 623, is bent into a convex shape protruding upward, in such a manner that the pair of projections 622 confronts the opening 610b of the socket element 610 and at the same time locates at a top of the convex. Then, a front end of the spring element 620 is bent upward so that its under surface can be in contact with a surface of the socket element 610. Here, a portion 620x, which is a part of the spring element 620 other than the convex portion, i.e., other than the front portion including the projections 621, 622, and 623, is folded so that surfaces of its folded two parts contact with each other along substantially on the same plane as the socket element 610 and other elements which have not been bent yet.
The tongue 610a illustrated in FIG. 10 is bent downward, thus forming a latch member 510a (see FIG. 11) that latches the female contact 501 to a non-illustrated housing that houses the female contact 501 therein.
Next, the socket element 610, the conductor crimper element 630, the insulator crimper element 631, the connecting portion 630a, and the connecting portion 631a are bent into respective shapes as shown in FIG. 12. To be more specific, these elements are bent along alternate long and short dash lines and alternate long and two short dashes lines illustrated in FIG. 10, thereby forming a socket 510. The socket 510 has a substantially rectangular-cylindrical shape whose bottom wall 511, side walls 512, and top wall 513 shown in FIG. 12 are constituted by respective portions 611, 612, 613x, and 613y illustrated in FIG. 10. The portions 613x and 613y are connected with their front edges abutting each other. The conductor crimper element 630 and the insulator crimper element 631 illustrated in FIG. 10 are respectively formed into a conductor crimper 530 and an insulator crimper 531, each of which has a U-like shape with its top opened. The connecting portions 630a and 631a illustrated in FIG. 10 are also shaped U-like with its top opened, thus forming a connecting portions 530a and 531a, respectively.
In the state shown in FIG. 12, the projections 621 and 623 of the spring element 620 are in contact with inner faces of the side walls 512, and the projections 622 of the spring element 620 are engaged with the opening 510b. 
In FIG. 12, the parts corresponding to the respective elements 610, 630, 631, 630a, and 631a illustrated in FIG. 10 are already in finished forms, and therefore denoted by the respective reference numbers 510, 530, 531, 530a, and 531a, which are the same as in FIG. 13.
Finally, a portion of the spring element 620 extending out of the socket 510 in FIG. 12, i.e., the portion 620x which is a part of the spring element 620 other than the convex portion, is cut away. The remaining convex portion of the spring element 620 forms a flat spring 520 as shown in FIG. 13, thus completing the female contact 501 that has the flat spring 520 held in its socket 510.
After the cutaway process, the projections 621, 622, and 623 in FIG. 12 provided at the convex portion of the spring element 620 becomes constituent parts of the flat spring 520. In FIG. 13, accordingly, the parts corresponding to the projections 621, 622, and 623 are denoted by the reference numbers 521, 522, and 523, respectively.
In the female contact 501 shown in FIG. 13, the flat spring 520 is latched to the socket 520 via the projections 522 alone. One end of the flat spring 520 at a male-contact inlet of the socket 510, which is provided at a left side of the socket 510 in FIG. 13, is in contact with the bottom wall 511 of the socket 510 but is not latched to the socket 510.